Neil: Not surprised. The SurgeX rep in Orlando, FL took a direct hit on a tree in his front yard. Took out all the plants in the yard, and about $85K of stuff in the house, including the dishwasher and TV's, even an electric toothbrush. The only thing left operating was his computer system hanging off the end of a SurgeX.

Jim Loppnow from InfoComm: Could you explain ground contamination?

Neil: The Equipment Ground (EG) conductor in a building’s power distribution system is the "green wire" that is part of a 3-wire power cord. When you "plug in" to a wall outlet, connecting your equipment to building ground, the green wire provides a safety connection at line frequencies. The impedance of the equipment ground at transient frequencies (1 MHz being the approx center) is ANYTHING but zero.

Neil (continued): When a power line transient is diverted into the local ground, the resulting elevation of local ground reference is applied to your equipment. If your equipment is sitting there by itself, and NOT connected to anything else in the building, no problem. BUT, if there is any sort of interconnection to another point in the building (like another computer) the resulting noise current due to the elevated ground reference can cause crashes and worse.

SDK: Even a modem connection can cause problems with ground contamination.

Neil: Yes. But modems universally employ isolation transformers to prevent the problem.

Andy Benton from InfoComm: What are your recommendations on installing breakers and distributing power for amplifiers without inrush current limiting?

Neil: This is getting to be a big problem. A typical 400 watts per channel (8 ohms) power amplifier will pull CONSIDERABLY more than 10X its rated full-load current for a few seconds when it is first turned on. Two or more such units on the same branch circuit will pop the breaker on the branch circuit. SurgeX ICE is a retro-fittable device that can be installed in front of each power amplifier that does not have built-in inrush protection.

Nicole Like: Are SurgeX units manufactured in U.S.? Also, what countries /companies are currently using these units.

Neil: They’re made near Philadelphia, and are in use widely in the U.S., and more recently, Canada.

Moderator: We've got about 10 minutes. Final questions please!

Nicole Like: Once SurgeX is installed, can we shut off other in-house inductive devices or will we still be subjected to memory and crash problems?

Neil: SurgeX will stop any locally generated transient energy. Crashes should be history

Joel: Balanced power - can it eliminate problems with ground noises coming from the power grid or some other source?